. In 1647, the Puritan-led English Parliament banned the celebration of Christmas, replacing it with a day of fasting and considering it "a popish festival with no biblical justification", and a time of wasteful and immoral behavior.

Historian Stephen Nissenbaum contends that the modern celebration in the United States was developed in New York State from defunct and imagined Dutch and English traditions in order to refocus the holiday from one where groups of young men went from house to house demanding alcohol and food into one centered on the happiness of children. He notes that there was deliberate effort to prevent the children from becoming greedy in response.

In spite of early successes, by the winter of 1862-63 the Confederate hold on the Cherokee Nation was slipping. Nonetheless, Watie's Regiment continued to harass Federal forces. In June and September 1864, scored his greatest military feats in the capture of the Union steamboat J.R. Williams and the Second Battle of Cabin Creek. In May 1864 Watie was promoted to brigadier general, and in February 1865 he was placed in command of the Indian Division of Indian Territory. However, by then the war was lost. Watie surrendered on June 23, 1865. He was the last Confederate general to do so. Afterward, he served as a member of the pro-Southern Cherokee delegation to the Fort Smith Council in September 1865.